Images and words by Mark Gromen

With the perceptible drop in black metal's overall popularity outside the trve/cvlt circles, DIMMU BORGIR has slightly run afoul of metalheads of late (at least in North America, hence my interest in checking out an overseas date), what with line-up changes, lackluster releases and (as petty as it might seem), all white wardrobe. Getting ready to celebrate two decades together, I suspect the band are, at least in part, aware of the situation, thus this tour where fans got to choose which pre-'98 album (For All Tid, Stormblast or Enthrone Darkness Triumphant) was aired in its entirety, along with a second set of greatest hits. Silenoz has long been a friend of BW&BK;, whether in Norway, Canada, Germany or the US. He was our guest at the first 6-Pack Weekend and always been a straight shooter when it comes to interviews. On this occasion, we were in Manchester, England, a first for both of us. The Norwegians were days away from wrapping up the exclusive Evening With DIMMU BORGIR tour, where they performed all of Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. Prior to the gig at Academy 3, located on the third floor of the University Of Manchester’s student union, we sat in the back lounge of their second tour bus (the first having succumbed to the black metallers earlier in the tour) to discuss the past, present and future of the band.

“We haven’t toured the UK that much,” comes his response to inquiries about why November 2011 was the appropriate time to undertake such a, for the lack of better word, “retro” tour in England. “We’ve done mainland Europe, but every time we hit the UK, it was just two shows: one in London and another in Birmingham or Manchester and that’s it. Since we didn’t do that much touring earlier this year, we decided to do it up, make it more of a happening, do it in the UK and tour Ireland for the first time and make it more intimate settings, so the fans have the feeling we’re making up for the past, where we haven’t played here as much. I don’t mind playing smaller places, it gets a more intense feeling and is easier to interact with the crowd. And tonight, we know that every fan is there to see us!”

Touring without any opening acts seems unlikely for a lengthy tour, so is there any chance the rest of the globe will get to see these special shows? “We’ll evaluate after this tour, but judging from fans’ reaction and the responses of those online, who have been to the shows: ‘I’m really glad I had the chance to see the show,’ there’s a feeling and idea we might do it elsewhere. It’s an option, for sure. If you’re talking about North America, it all depends on the economic point of view. Sadly, that’s what it comes down to for bands. It’s definitely doable. We’ve played there before, in pretty decent sized venues, with just a three band package. We’ll have to see.”

Inside Academy 3 (the other two are either downstairs, or next door), the tiny stage is roughly as big as the bar. Only about a fourth of the packed crowd would be potentially college age. The old album begins with what have become two of their biggest hits, both usually found at the end of the set, not as lead-off tracks, as they are this evening, ‘Mourning Palace’ and ‘Spellbound (By The Devil)’. Both get the crowd into a fever pitch, right off the bat.

Silenoz claims there were no stumbling blocks to reacquainting themselves with the older material. “Not really,” he says nonchalantly. “The Enthrone Darkness album has only keyboards on it, two or three layers, at the most. It wasn’t recorded to a click (track) either, so that’s why it has this dynamic feel, that works well in the live situation. It felt really cool to revisit the songs. Of course, you think back to how you wrote and arranged songs back then. It’s totally different, sort of juvenile, naïve way of how we wrote, which is part of the charm for that album, I think. There’s no tweeks to the songs. We may add some more keyboards wizardry, just to freshen it up, but we kept it faithful to the sound on the album and I guess we just play it better, as a band. I think these songs may sound better live, then the band back then. When we were in London, I expected the crowd to be more laidback, since every touring band goes through, but it was the total opposite. People were fucking crazy for almost every song. Some nights you think, ‘They’re going to go nuts on these’ and they’re more laidback, but are enthusiastic for songs we don’t expect them to be.”

There’s certainly a vitality onstage, Shagrath, in bat-winged vestment, stood center stage, the guitar tandem of Galder and Silenoz to either side, dealing out the galloping pomp of ‘In Death’s Embrace’ or, with fists aloft, the trickle of ivories that breaks the pedestrian pace of ‘Entrance’. Throughout the initial set, the stage rarely changes beyond deep reds and green lights, with only the blinding barrage of strobes adding variation.

Feels strange to be looking back, but believe it or not, DIMMU BORGIR is rapidly approaching two decades as a band! The guitarist sighs, “We started the band August ’93. It doesn’t feel like twenty years. There’s so much stuff we’ve experienced: all the ups and downs. All the ups outweigh the downs and it shows that some of us, at least, are hard-headed people! Determined, focused, most of the time at least (laughs). It’s also about taking advantage of all the opportunities that come your way. To do that, you can’t be afraid to fail. That’s something we learned pretty early on: if you want things to happen, you have to do it yourself (obviously with a little bit of help from others). If you’re not in the same ballpark, the people in the band, it’s not going to go in a forward direction. It will stay the same or go backwards.” So will there be anything special, to commemorate 20 years, either from the band and/or label? “The band has talked about it. Obviously we’re going to do a new record, but I don’t think we’ll write it out of the prospective of that hour. We will write whatever we write and that will be the album. I’m sure we’ll do something special for the release, but it’s too early to say what that will be.”

During “halftime,” the 15 minute interlude between sets, symphonic music is played through the speakers, conversation at the bar sees locals (although there are hints of German, French and Italian tongues also being spoken) openly avowing allegiance to DIMMU over their own make-up brigade, CRADLE OF FILTH. The call to the second set, which sees the band reemerge in the white coveralls adorned throughout the Abrahadabra tour, is a brief drum solo, as easy way to signal those at the bar (or in the loo) that the show is starting up.

How does the guitarist view himself, after twenty years on/down the road? “I’ve changed in that I don’t really care anymore what people say about your (our) band, unless they’ve met me personally. I can speak for all the others too, in that we’ve grown as people: to be able to travel the world and experience (things) because of the band, something you love to do. I still don’t even consider it a job. I know that even if I wasn’t playing at this level, I’d still be making music. I’m happy and fortunate enough that I can make a living doing this. I don’t know how much longer that’s going to be possible…It’s a challenge, but it feels good to take a challenge and make it. “The last few years, the band has seemed somewhat uncomfortable being lumped into the “black metal” category. “I think that comes with age, when you don’t care too much about labeling your music anymore. Personally, I haven’t been that concerned with putting a tag on our music. I feel comfortable if it’s mentioned we come from that genre, for sure. That’s where we come from, but we’ve always been so much more, lyrically and musically. If ‘symphonic black metal’ is the tag we’re going to be known for, for the rest of our career, that’s fine with me.”

Silenoz admits he wasn’t surprised which album the fans opted for, via Internet poll. “Not between those three. I would have been surprised if the first or second album came out on top. I think we regard the Enthrone album as our first proper album, because it’s the one that put us on the map: when we first started to work properly as a band and at that time everyone had found their place in the band. Everything worked well on that album and I still regard it as one of the highlights of our catalog.” In terms of its selection, he surmises, “There are still a lot of old school DIMMU fans that follow us. They might not agree with what we do these days, but that was an album that opened the door for us, and many other bands. Even if fans like the first or second just as well, (Enthrone) is the one they know us by.”

Surprisingly, the second set contains minimal amounts of their most recent platter, just three songs, ‘Gateways’, ‘Ritualist’ and their signature tune, complete with an expanded color scheme of a light show, including a red-white & blue homage to the Norwegian flag during ‘Dimmu Borgir’. Up early, ‘Kings Of The Carnival Creation’ bookends the newer material around the closing encore of ‘The Serpentine Offering’ and ‘Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse’ finale.

Expanding upon the ideas for the forthcoming ceremonial/celebratory album, Silenoz says, “The idea was to have it out in 2013. Would be cool to have it out before, but then it really wouldn’t be a twentieth anniversary. We’ve actually had a few (writing) sessions and it feels like stuff is coming together easy. It’s just a small beginning, but you can see the skeleton of something that is definitely us. So far, it’s only been Shagrath, Galder and myself, but I think we’ll try to incorporate the so-called session members a bit in the process. We’ll see how it goes, but I feel as a live unit, it works so well now that I don’t see any reason to change that. If the other guys have something to contribute, we’ll definitely take that into consideration.”

So with no new music until 2013, next year will be filled with touring. “That’s what we’re looking at,” agrees the guitarist. “We’re going to South America in Feb and March. We haven’t been there in eight years. We’re looking forward to that. We’ll also do a short Norwegian run, before getting into the festivals next summer. Quite a few festivals have been lined up, but only a couple confirmed (announced). We’re looking at hopefully going back to North America in September. We’ll see what type of tour it will be. I wouldn’t mind doing something like these (exclusive UK) shows. In between all the shows, we’ll work on new material, but it’s hard to concentrate on two things. When we have some downtime, we send it with our friends and families. Once the touring is done, we’ll sit down and start writing again.”

Seems a long time out of the stores, but worry not. “We’re still working on the DVD for the orchestra show we did in Oslo. It’s pretty much done, we just need to figure out the contractual bit. Once that’s done, the fans will have something out. It looks awesome! We re-edited it and re-mixed it since the TV broadcast, so whoever thinks they have the full DVD from YouTube will have to think again (laughs). There’s lots of bonus stuff on there as well. It’s worth waiting for.”

Waiting appears to be the name of the game for us here in North America, so log into BraveWords.com for all the latest.